I really enjoyed reading your blog post this week! I agree with you that since the media industry has intensified, the news is not as accurate as it used to be. Since news is a business, they produce a lot more content that gets them viewers so the content that they post may be a lot more biased to the reader’s views. Additionally, with there being so many different media companies, there is a much higher likelihood that something they post may be false. This is why newspaper credibility is so important because if you are reading information from media that isn’t credible it’s a lot easier to find false information.
Great job on your response! I really liked how you mentioned tone creating conflict. This is something that I didn’t think of, but definitely is a reason why conflict occurs. When you think about media, most media outlet views the opposing view to a matter in a negative way. This could also be because in media it is a one-sided story, you only get their response to the matter, and especially if you are not aware of the bias in media, you may not realize the other side of the story’s counterargument. This I think applies to conflict because a lot of people will repost news articles, unaware of the full story which sparks conflict.
Open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict; why does this happen?
In my previous experience, many people will read something on the internet and think this is true. Growing up we were taught however to not believe everything we see on the internet. I do think that many people have started to progress toward finding out the truth, however, there is still a huge way to go in terms of reducing conflict. After watching the video this week with Julia Smith (2021), I realized that media has multiple different ways of sucking people in to view things from only their perspective. The video also mentioned how news is a business, that the news networks will shift the display of their news to the interests of their viewers. I think in recent years, especially since the last election in the states, the bias of media has become more well known, for example, fox news now has been seen as more right-winged, and CNN is seen as more left-winged.
So how does the portrayal of bias in news create conflict? Since most social media platforms show you more of what you interact with, there will be a bias in the news you receive. As well if you only watch one news outlet, or only read news from one source you will have a more biased stance than those who read media from multiple different sources. This is why conflict happens because the media will overexaggerate things to fit your viewpoint. So for example say you love dogs, your media outlet might portray news more related to information about dogs, and could present the finding that dogs help humans live another 5 years longer. However, on the opposite side of the continuum, you could have cat lovers, who follow media outlets that highlight information about cats, and they could present a similar finding that Cats help humans live another 5 years longer. However, the actual result of the finding could have been household pets help humans live 5 years longer. So, conflict could arise between each of the two groups saying that their news is false since neither group was presented with the whole story of each finding and was just presented with the information that aligned with their views. This is why it is super important to have multiple media outlets and to read the news that aligns with different political views to get the whole story. Additionally, media outlet credibility also matters.
What is the benefit of having a PLN that values media literacy?
If you have a PLN that values media literacy, it will help you to understand the different views that people have. It allows people to understand how different media can be interpreted, as well as to understand the different views of people. PLNs help others communicate about different people’s viewpoints without the rise of conflict. Additionally, PLNs allow for collaboration and more insight into different news that you might not have heard about. Furthermore, PLN also allows more awareness about an issue that might not have been brought to your attention by your current media outlets. This in turn helps you broaden your knowledge about what is going on in the world and opens your mind to different viewpoints.
